The invention relates to a conveyor system, in particular a bucket conveyor or star feeder, having conveyor elements for conveying pelletized, in particular hot, material to be conveyed, having a cover for shielding the material to be conveyed.
The invention also relates to a composite system having a reduction system for reducing oxides in a continuous process, in particular a direct reduction system, and a process assembly for manufacturing liquid metal, in particular an electric steel works, in a discontinuous process, wherein the reduction product can be fed from the reduction system to the process assembly.
The invention also relates to a method for coupling a reduction method, for reducing oxides in a continuous process, in particular in a direct reduction, and a method for manufacturing liquid metal in a discontinuous process, in particular an electric steel method, wherein a reduction product is fed from the reduction method to the method for manufacturing liquid metal for processing.
The invention also relates to a method for operating a conveyor system, in particular a bucket conveyor or star feeder, having conveyor elements for feeding pelletized, in particular hot, material to be conveyed, having a cover for shielding the material to be conveyed.
Conveyor systems for conveying pelletized and hot material to be conveyed in order to process said material in metallurgical reactors are known from the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,986 discloses, for example, a device and a method for supplying, for example, a smelting process with hot and cold direct reduced iron (DRI), wherein the DRI is moved, under the force of gravity, from a DRI generating system to a DRI consumer for further processing. It is disadvantageous here that the entire flow of material occurs only under gravity so that differences in height in the system define tight limits.
For example, US 2002/130448 also discloses transporting pelletized material from a reduction system for a further processing stage by pneumatic conveyance under a protective gas. In particular the increase in the fine proportion as a result of abrasion during the pneumatic transportation which can lead to considerable disadvantages in a further processing step and entails costly treatment of fine materials is disadvantageous here.